Maybe heat it with a carburizing flame? How do they do it commercially? Kasenit? [That is the spelling of it on the can I've seen]

your on the right tract with kasent, just on a larger scale. kasent will work for case hardining. the cheeper thing to do is get some 4130 or 4140 make then heat treat. thats what I plan to do I have a sten boldt with a extractor that Im not building with. so I have on but I would like to keep the hole thing ( sten boldt) in tact for now. muttman

486,
yes the brits did make some early bolts with bronze, but it needs to be stated that when these were made 1, the brits were in fear is a invation from the german's and 2, the brits were short on raw steel to make parts with, i.e. what ever they had to go bang with was used. bronze can be used if one did not have better to start off with.
muttman

the cheeper thing to do is get some 4130 or 4140 make then heat treat.

How is it cheaper to buy 4130?? is it that expensive to case harden???? 4130 is not cheap especulY FOR 1 1/4" square stock.. seems like we dis some case hardeniong in metal shop back in the day and the steel was heted rolled in some type of casbon powder and quenched dont recall exactly. as far as the stens they were throw away guns made for like $15 I dpubt longevity was a issue. besides bronse will wear better than mlld steel on steel.

486,
yes the brits did make some early bolts with bronze, but it needs to be stated that when these were made 1, the brits were in fear is a invation from the german's and 2, the brits were short on raw steel to make parts with, i.e. what ever they had to go bang with was used. bronze can be used if one did not have better to start off with.
muttman

The story I heard was that it was to save machine time, as the bronze could be cast very accurately and needed much less machining from there to become functional.

486,
that might be part of it but the brits did not have the steel to make a new bomber so thay used wood the palne was called the mosquito, all wood air frame it was a badass bomberMosquito fighter/bomber, Stirling bomber and the Typhoon fighter
my point was they were in "sucks to be you" in a big way and did not have the raw matreal to make a new bomber so they used what they had on hand.

big gun
Im not saying to case harden 4130. just heat,quench then a slow heat to draw out some of the temper. there is nothin wroung with case harding the extractor or using a bronze boldt just ther could be better choises out there. muttman

big gun
Im not saying to case harden 4130. just heat,quench then a slow heat to draw out some of the temper. there is nothin wroung with case harding the extractor or using a bronze boldt just ther could be better choises out there. muttman

I see. I was jst pointing out that 4130 isint cheap. I was thinking if a normal steel bolt could be case hardend then it might be cheaper an easier. I dont have a forge to prperly temper and aneal a 1.5 pound bolt. small stuff maybe but it would be tought to do a entire bolt/carrier assembly with out a forge or some ting like that.. I am of course open to any ideas. When I get back from vacation Im going to do some barrels when the reamer shows up. and get started on a 7.62x25 f some sort. I got ammo and mags so it needs to get built.

I see. I was jst pointing out that 4130 isint cheap. I was thinking if a normal steel bolt could be case hardend then it might be cheaper an easier.

I'm just using hot rolled mild steel stock, 1.5x1x6" piece, got most of the milling done, gonna have to figure out how to drill the firing pin hole without it wandering too much, maybe go with a 1/8" bit for a half inch or so and a 1/4" from the other end, a stiffer drill bit would make it less likely to wander, right? Well, anyways I'm not gonna waste that much kasenit on that, I'll just oil quench it and hopefully it gets hard enough to not wear too much...

Is Kasonite expensive??? seems like back in the day of high school metal shop we had a tub of some powderd carbon???? that we used. I cant remember what it was exactly but we did use it for doing some sort of case hardening.